When you’re the all-time Top Fuel winner and a seven-time series champion, chances are you’re going to bring out the best in your competition. But, for Tony Schumacher, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster, the level of the challenge might be close to bordering on unreasonable.
Schumacher scored his fourth career NHRA Gatornationals title by stopping teammate Antron Brown.
“I go out in the first event of the season – [lose in a] tie race [with Larry Dixon] – then we go into the second race and [Steve Torrence] runs his quickest ever,” Schumacher explained. “If you look back into the books our team is responsible for all of maybe the lesser budget teams running their best ET’s.
“[Today] Terry McMillen runs a 3.86 [in the second round]. We do not stage our car and think it is an easy run. These guys are good. When they come up and the car isn’t going down the track, they try things. They turn things here and there and it sticks when you have a great race track like this. Unfortunately you get some good side-by-sides.”